Deadlines are a funny thing. When you’re trying to demand something, whether it’s stadium subsidies or more literal ransom money, telling your mark that the clock is ticking is a great way to impose a sense of urgency, hoping to get them to panic and do something foolish out of fear of what could happen otherwise. But at the same time, you need to have an actual threat to go with it — saying you’re going to shoot the dog only works if you’re willing to go through with it, or at least you can make people believe you’re going to go through with it. If you’re only bluffing, a deadline can work against you as well.
For the Chicago Bears owners, the threat on the table is to move to Indiana, and there are two deadlines coming up there: The February 27 adjournment of the Indiana state legislature, and before that a decision this Thursday by the state house ways and means committee on whether to advance a bill to create a sports authority to build a new stadium somewhere in the northwest corner of the state. You would think this would be putting pressure on team execs to decide on whether to commit to a move — especially with Indiana legislative leaders saying they won’t approve a bill unless the Bears owners promise to actually go through with crossing state lines. And yet, this is still being presented in some quarters as pressure on Illinois to take action on its own possibly $1 billion subsidy package for a stadium in Arlington Heights:
- The Chicago sports news site Sports Mockery says Illinois faces “a decisive moment by the end of February,” as Indiana “has been rolling out the red carpet” to lure the Bears.
- Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia said he’s confident Illinois officials are “wide awake right now” about the need to respond to the Indiana threat.
- National sports news site Clutch Points reports that a hearing in the Illinois legislature this Thursday on a bill to let Arlington Heights give property tax breaks to a Bears stadium “represents a major juncture” what with “Indiana reportedly exploring relocation possibilities.” (Clutch Points also refers to the hearing as a “court date,” so maybe “news site” is overstating things a bit.)
- Fox59 reports that the city of Portage has “upped the ante” with a proposal for a $5 billion stadium complex to be entirely funded by “non-football event revenue,” LOL.
If anything, it seems like Bears officials are the ones who should be sweating: If Indiana decides not to take up the sports authority bill in the next 48 hours, their best chance at leverage to scare Illinois leaders into coughing up tax money disappears. At this point, team owners look like they’ll need to decide on whether to pull the trigger on an Indiana move before they know what subsidies Illinois is or isn’t offering — and before knowing what Indiana is even offering, beyond a sports authority that would have the power to spend tax money, if somebody found some to give to it. That’s a pretty fine tightrope to walk, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how Bears execs approach it. Maybe they should hop on a flight to Iowa tomorrow, just in case.
Well, if this doesn’t work all the Bears have left is to start chopping off season ticket holders’ fingers, wrapping them in today’s newspaper and sending them to Pritzker’s office along with ransom notes pasted together out of magazine cuttings.
If they can find any surviving magazines to cut letters out of, that is.
This would be the absolute best time for Pritzker to hold a presser saying “we are withdrawing any and all offers at this time and will not resume negotiations until there is clarity about where the Bears will be playing in 2030 and beyond. Thank you.”
As entertaining as that would be, Pritzker doesn’t even have to do that: He can just wait until the Bears owners don’t commit to Indiana by Thursday, see if the Indiana legislature blocks Kevin Warren’s DMs, and if they do, call him up and say, “Well, well, well, well, well, shoe’s on the other foot now, hmmmm?”
Or even “the foot’s on the other hand now, isn’t it?”
Wouldn’t waiting until Friday allow a window for Council Bluffs or Greensboro to swoop in with a late move for the Ex-Staleys?
Neil – I think Portage’s 100% non-football financed stadium shows a level headed approach to stadium financing and an understanding of what you have been saying for many years and deserves your praise not scorn.
I would have liked the statement to define “non-football event revenue” but Portage clearly defines this as living, shopping, vacationing and passing through the area. Can portage tax planes that fly through its airspace.
Breathing and sleeping are non-football events, I suppose.
Meanwhile the state will pretty much help Indy Eleven ownership kill a possible MLS stadium deal because it would possibly tear down a heliport no one uses… Even though the Eleven explicitly want a stadium built on a cemetery and demand a bunch of other accessories to go with it and have not offered any other alternatives even as the USL is struggling to set up their insane pro/rel pyramid scheme… I mean investment in American soccer in two years. So… No stadium will be built in Indianapolis and no stadium is ever going to be built for the Bears as they’re not stupid enough to move to Indiana.
Politics in a nutshell.